Having problems wiht my Cable Network hookup

[Nuugentacca]

Ok, I'll try and make this as simple as possible.

I bought a new omputer about 8 months aog. We had it hooked up to the net through our local Cable company. 2 weeks ago, I hooked our old machine up to a hub, fed the signal through the hub and into both machines. The old computer wouldn't connect to the internet. The new one stayed connected and didn't have any problems.

I went to check my E-mail this morning, and my new computer wouldn't connect to the net. Out of curiosity, I tried the old computer and now it is connected to the net but the new one still won't connect.

Now I am truly confused. Can someone please help me out here?

[JustinPMI]

I'm guessing you don't have 2 IPs from your cable company. Basically what your tring to do is run 2 machines on 1 IP, and my bet is you started up the old comp first then the new one. The old one would see the connection and grab the IP before the new one could leaving it with no access. Theres 2 fixes, pay 5 bucks more a month for a 2nd IP from your cable company, or get a router and use it to split off the signal to both comps and it will then assign static IPs for both. I use the IPs from my cable company its just easier than a router. But be forewarned that just hubing off the connection with the IPs from the cable co. leaves you with no firewall protection at all. Downloading a free one such as zone alarm is a good idea. Its not full proof but it'll help.

[zipulrich]

Justin's right, but I'd like to add that going with a router (as he suggested) usually provides you with a hardware firewall.